An exploration of enlightened absurdity that loses much of its appeal in the overinclusion of details.
A trio of sages explore absurdity and chase enlightenment in this Buddhist-themed picaresque from Goldstein.
Feng Kan, the first sage presented in Goldstein’s debut novel, begins his life slow-witted and without prospects for a wife or livelihood. A monk takes pity on the boy and offers to train him in the ways of monastic life. Struggling at first, Feng Kan eventually excels, performing very mundane tasks and eventually becoming the master of the monastery’s granary. After his struggles, Feng Kan finds enlightenment and goes on to train two pupils, Shih Te, the foundling of the book’s title, and Han Shan. The first half of the book concerns this trio’s mystical encounters—discoursing with demons, taming wild tigers and teaching Buddhist sutras—as well as the dialogues shared among the monks. The conversations are riddled with absurdities, the kind of intentionally illogical banter that later—in Japan—will find expression in the koans of Zen Buddhism. Unfortunately, the charm of these interactions is diminished significantly by the book’s wordy prose and the numerous digressions that explain esoteric Chinese healing practices, the structure of the human mind in Ch’an orthodoxy and the proper way to teach a wild tiger to be peaceful. All of these explanations strive for consistency with Ch’an precepts, but Goldstein misses the mark, smothering the freedom of Ch’an absurdity and apparent silliness with an overeager zeal for detail. The second half of the book contains translations of Han Shan’s poems, or those attributed to him, and these work more effectively than the earlier prose. The translator has a tin ear, but the translations are clear and sincere. More than 200 brush paintings are also included in the text, and they add vibrancy to the poems.
An exploration of enlightened absurdity that loses much of its appeal in the overinclusion of details.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2010
ISBN: 978-1426914683
Page Count: 700
Publisher: Trafford
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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